SLASH FEATURING MYLES KENNEDY & THE CONSPIRATORS, AKA the band that nobody asked for, is generously bestowing upon us their “final touches” on a new studio album. Tentative release date? Sometime around 2027, so mark your calendars 🗓️. Because you’ll definitely remember to care by then.
Late Thursday night (August 21, in case you’re living under a rock 🪨), SLASH FEATURING MYLES KENNEDY & THE CONSPIRATORS leader Slash – yes, THAT Slash, the one who isn’t busy enough with GUNS N’ ROSES 🌹– took to his Instagram to share a photo of him with SLASH FEATURING MYLES KENNEDY & THE CONSPIRATORS frontman Myles Kennedy (who?) and bassist Todd Kerns (who again?). The profound message? “Movie night with the boys in FL. Putting final touches on new record due in 2027. It’s going to be a good one!” #SMKC #Conspirators @officialmyleskennedy @toddkerns @brentfitz @franksidoris. Because hashtags make everything better, right? 🙄
In a recent interview with J.J. Caithcart of Different Stages Radio (never heard of it), SLASH FEATURING MYLES KENNEDY & THE CONSPIRATORS drummer Brent Fitz (still nobody 🤔) spoke about the songwriting status for the band’s next snoozefest. “Well, we’re working on it,” he droned. “So, Todd and I are gonna – well, we’re all gonna get back together after the summer, late summer. And we’ve been working on it in Florida with our producer, [Michael] ‘Elvis’ Baskette, who has been out in Florida for many years.” Riveting stuff, folks. Absolute edge-of-your-seat entertainment 😴.
Brent continued, “Slash has the greatest work ethic of any musician I’ve ever worked with.” Oh, so he’s good at showing up? Groundbreaking. “So, we got busy. We toured together in 2024 (because who wouldn’t want more SLASH FEATURING MYLES KENNEDY & THE CONSPIRATORS in their lives?), and then we were out doing other things, and then Slash did a blues record and tour. And then, as soon as that was done, we got right into the studio in L.A. He has an amazing working studio. We can be busy there in L.A. We did that for a month, and then we went out to Florida and recorded most of all the bed tracks, the music parts of it. So we’re still gonna finish… [SLASH FEATURING MYLES KENNEDY & THE CONSPIRATORS frontman] Myles Kennedy will come and work on all the vocal stuff. And he’s been out busy doing his own solo tours.” Because one band apparently isn’t enough for this guy. 🙄
“This is the new normal,” Fitz added, trying to justify the band’s existence. “Everybody’s in so many different projects and bands. And Slash is, obviously, in a little band called GUNS N’ ROSES, so they’re on tour right now. He’s over in, I think, Asia or Bahrain. They’re covering a lot of new territory, it seems.” Translation: Slash is too busy being a legend to give SLASH FEATURING MYLES KENNEDY & THE CONSPIRATORS his full attention, but hey, gotta pay the bills somehow, right? 🤷♂️
“So we’ll all get together. We’ll get back end of the summer after all the TOQUE shows and stuff,” Brent said, referencing the Canadian rock band that he and Kerns are both members of. “And it’ll be great to get out to Florida and continue finishing the record.” Because Florida is the epitome of rock ‘n’ roll, obviously 🌴. I mean why not?
Asked if there is a working title for the upcoming SLASH FEATURING MYLES KENNEDY & THE CONSPIRATORS album, Brent said: “Nothing. No, no. It’s always gonna be a Myles thing, or Slash, just songtitles and lyric ideas. I will say that what’s fun is when we do write these songs, and this’ll be our fifth record together, but we always have comedic working titles. And Todd‘s usually good – Todd and Slash – good for coming up with things that won’t be the final title, ’cause obviously with lyrics with Myles, it’ll be something completely different. But we usually just give something a title so we can go, ‘Hey, let’s work on that song.’ ‘What song?’ ‘Oh, the song in E.’ No, we’ll give it a title. But over time we’ve had these goofy titles, I’ll just say, that sometimes they stick. And to this day, some of our songs, I go, ‘Oh, it’s called ‘Wicked Stone’.’ And I’m, like, ‘But it used to be something completely ridiculous.’ And I still think sometimes when I look at our setlist live, I go, ‘Oh, that’s the ‘Elephant Disorder’ song.’ It’s just funny how… We have a whole bunch of goofy working titles for the songs right now.” So basically, their creative process is just a bunch of inside jokes that nobody else will ever understand 😂.
This past January, Kennedy told Heavy Consequence (still digging deep for these sources, huh?) about the next SLASH FEATURING MYLES KENNEDY & THE CONSPIRATORS album: “As far as the progress goes, I think a lot of it is well on its way. I have to get my vocals recorded. Just have to find a window of time to do that in between the touring and whatnot. I have my vocals written and melodies and lyrics and all that stuff. I just need to get in to the studio and knock it out.” Translation: “I’m busy, Slash is busy, but we’ll squeeze it in eventually.” 🙄
He continued: “As for the direction of the record, it’s still riff-based rock ‘n’ roll with a heavy dose of the blues element that Slash brings, like only he does. It’s some really great stuff. I think it’s going to be another fun one to tour live.” Riff-based rock ‘n’ roll? Groundbreaking. Sounds like they’re really pushing the envelope here ✉️. I think there is so much potential that is being wasted here. Who wants to bet that it is actually a total snoozefest, it would be so fun to be dissapointed by it.
In December 2024, Myles told SiriusXM‘s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk” that “the demoing and all that, the writing” for the next SLASH FEATURING MYLES KENNEDY & THE CONSPIRATORS album “was done before I even embarked on this last [solo] tour. The easy part is the recording; the hard part is the writing. Slash and I were – he was sending me demos of the tunes. Then I was spending time with him, coming up with melodies and lyrics. And so that’s all done – I think with the exception of one song. Now I just have to find a moment to get in the studio and all that, knock that out. But I will say that just even in the demo process and where we stood there before they went in to actually make the record musically, it is really exciting stuff. I’m really, really stoked about where this one’s going. It’s gonna be cool.” Well, at least someone’s excited. The rest of us will be over here waiting for GUNS N’ ROSES to release something new.
